Fisherman dead after Taiwan fires missile by mistake

By Mahmut Atanur

BEIJING (AA) – A fisherman was killed Friday after his boat was hit by a missile that Taiwan’s military insisted was accidentally fired from a patrol boat but did not cross the median line of a strait shared with mainland China.

Taiwan’s official Central News Agency reported that the captain of the fishing vessel was killed and three other crewmembers -- including his son and two migrants from Vietnam and the Philippines -- slightly injured after the accident that the navy has blamed on human error.

The Taiwanese navy's chief of staff, Vice Adm. Mei Chia-shu, was quoted as saying that the supersonic anti-ship missile, which was fired from a 500-ton Chinchiang-class corvette during a drill in a harbor in southern Kaohsiung, landed in waters off outlying Penghu County.

He insisted during a press conference that the missile hit around 40 nautical miles northwest of the harbor without crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which has an average width of 180 kilometers (97 nautical miles).

The accident occurred as Beijing marked the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China.

Since Chinese nationalist leaders fled to Taiwan in 1949 after a brutal civil war with Mao Zedong's Communists, China has seen the region as a breakaway province that will eventually return.

When asked during Friday’s press conference whether Beijing had responded to the misfiring of the missile, Mei said Taiwan’s navy did not have a direct communication channel with the mainland.

The agency reported that Gen. Yen De-fa, chief of Taiwan’s general staff, is leading a task force to investigate the matter, which initial information suggested came after standard procedure was not followed during equipment testing.